South Korea imposed unilateral sanctions on 18 North Koreans on Monday, barring any financial transactions between those sanctioned and any South Koreans, as part of international efforts to dry up Pyongyang’s illegal cash flows, Reuters reports.
All 18 individuals on which the South Korean sanctions were imposed were directly affiliated to North Korean banks, according to an official government announcement by the finance minister uploaded on the Interior Ministry’s website.
“They are all people at North Korean financial institutions that have already been sanctioned by the United Nations,” a government official directly involved in the sanction development process told Reuters. The official asked for anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to media.
“They’re high-ranking employees who have been linked to North Korea’s nuclear and missile development program as well as the North’s foreign exchange procurement efforts.”
The announcement came a day ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to South Korea as part of his 12-day Asia tour, where he is expected to discuss North Korea’s nuclear and missile program at length with government officials here.
Despite the announcement, the sanctions are expected to have little impact on North Korea’s illegal activities to fund its weapons program as all trade and financial exchanges have been barred since May 2010 following the torpedoing of a South Korean warship by North Korea.
According to the announcement 14 of those named were based in China, two were based in Libya while the remaining two were based in Russia.
The institutions the 18 were affiliated with were Korea Daesong Bank, Foreign Trade Bank of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Korea United Development Bank, Bank of East Land and ILSIM International Bank.